Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 6:25
Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.
25. eyelids ] Painted probably after the Eastern fashion. Comp. 2Ki 9:30. “They paint or blacken the eyelids with khl, and prolong the application in a descending pencil, so as to lengthen and reduce the eye in appearance to what is called almond shape. The practice is extremely ancient, for such painted eyes are found in the oldest Egyptian tombs. It imparts a peculiar brilliancy to the eye and a languishing amorous cast to the whole countenance.” Thomson, Land and Book, p. 461.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Eyelids – Possibly pointing to the Eastern custom of painting the eyes on the outside with kohl so as to give brightness and languishing expression.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 25. Neither let her take thee with her eye-lids.] It is a very general custom in the East to paint the eye-lids. I have many Asiatic drawings in which this is expressed. They have a method of polishing the eyes with a preparation of antimony, so that they appear with an indescribable lustre; or, as one who mentions the fact from observation, “Their eyes appear to be swimming in bliss.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; do not give way to, nor delight thyself with, unchaste thoughts or affections. Compare Mat 5:28.
With her eyelids; either with her beauty, which consists much in the eyes; or rather, with her amours and wanton glances.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
25. One of the cautions of thisinstruction, avoid alluring beauty.
takeor, “ensnare.”
eyelidsBy painting thelashes, women enhanced beauty.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Lust not after her beauty in thine heart,…. Do not look upon it with the eye, nor dwell upon it in the thought; the one will lead on to and kindle last in the heart, and the other will cherish it and blow it up into a flame; and lust thus conceived and nourished in the heart is no other than committing adultery, Mt 5:28;
neither let her take thee with her eyelids; let her not take thee from instruction with them, so Aben Ezra, from attending to that; or let her not take thy wisdom from thee, so Jarchi; or rather let her not take thee as in a net, with the sparkling of her eyes, with the wanton and amorous glances of them; so the Syriac version, “let her not captivate thee”, &c. which applied to the antichristian church, may signify the outward pomp and grandeur of it, its pretensions to antiquity, to the apostolic see, to infallibility, miracles, great devotion, &c. which are taking to men, and are the Circean cup with which she bewitches and allures, Re 17:4. The Targum is,
“let her not seduce thee,” &c.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The proaemium of these twelve proverbial discourses is now at an end. Wisdom herself begins striking the note of the Decalogue:
25 Long not for her beauty in thy heart,
And let her not catch thee with her eyelids;
26 Because for a harlot one cometh down to a piece of bread,
And a man’s wife lieth in wait for a precious soul.
The warning 25a is in the spirit of the “thou shalt not covet,” Exo 20:17, and the , Mat 5:28, of the Preacher on the Mount. The Talmudic proverb ( Joma 29a) means only that the imagination of the sinful act exhausts the body even more than the act itself. The warning, “let her not catch thee with her eyelids,” refers to her (the adulteress’s) coquettish ogling and amorous winking. In the reason added, beginning with (thus it is to be punctuated), there is the appositional connection , Gesen. 113; the idea of goes over into 26b. “ [ = , R. kr, to round, vid., at Gen 49:5], properly a circle of bread, is a small round piece of bread, such as is still baked in Italy ( pagnotta) and in the East (Arab. kurs ), here an expression for the smallest piece” (Fl.). ( constr. of ), as Job 2:4; Isa 32:14, is used in the sense of , pro , and with there is connected the idea of the coming down to this low point. Ewald, Bertheau explain after the lxx, , . But nothing is said here of price (reward); the parallelism is synonymous, not antithetic: he is doubly threatened with loss who enters upon such a course. The adulterer squanders his means (Pro 29:3) to impoverishment ( vid., the mention of a loaf of bread in the description of poverty 1Sa 2:36), and a man’s wife (but at the same time seeking converse with another) makes a prey of a precious soul; for whoever consents to adulterous converse with her, loses not perhaps his means, but certainly freedom, purity, dignity of soul, yea, his own person. comprehends – as , fisher’s town [Zidon], Arab. syad , hunter and fisher, show – all kinds of hunting, but in Hebr. is used only of the hunting of wild beasts. The root-meaning (cf. ) is to spy, to seize.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
25. Take thee with her eyelids Captivate with her eyelids. Oriental women paint their eyebrows and eyelids, giving, as is thought, great artificial beauty to them. A writer who had seen them says, “Their eyes appear to be swimming in bliss. Arab poetry is full of praise of this kind of beauty.” Bible Commentary. See note and illustration on Job 42:14, page 301.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Pro 6:25. With her eyelids Women in the east used to be particular in painting and beautifying their eyelids; and as their motive was by that means to ensnare and captivate the men, the expression seems to be highly proper. “The eye of a harlot is the snare of her lover,” says St. Ambrose. See Philostratus’s Epist. . Though the words, a man is brought, in the next verse are not in the Hebrew, yet they seem plainly to be understood, and give us a better sense than any of the other versions; which have it, The price of a whore is scarcely that of a single loaf.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 6:25 Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.
Ver. 25. Lust not after her beauty. ] Aureliae Orestillae praeter formam nihil unquam bonus laudavit. Aurelia Orestilla had beauty indeed, but nothing else that was praise worthy, saith the historian. a How much better Aspasia Milesia, of whom Aelian b reports that she was fair and modest. And the Lady Jane Gray, whose excellent beauty was adorned with all variety of virtues, as a clear sky with stars, as a princely diadem with jewels. Some women are like Helen without, Hecuba within; but it is a small praise to have a good face and a naughty nature – a beautiful countenance and a base life.
In thine heart.
Neither let her take thee with her eyelids.
a Salust.
b K ; AeIian, Var. Hist., lib. xii. cap. 1.
c Propers, Pagnin.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Lust: 2Sa 11:2-5, Mat 5:28, Jam 1:14, Jam 1:15
take: 2Ki 9:30, *marg. Son 4:9, Isa 3:16
Reciprocal: Gen 39:10 – as she spake Exo 20:17 – wife Lev 18:20 – General Deu 21:11 – desire 2Sa 13:1 – a fair sister Job 31:1 – think Job 31:9 – If mine Psa 101:3 – set Pro 7:25 – thine Pro 23:31 – General Pro 31:30 – Favour Eze 23:16 – as soon as she saw them with her eyes Mal 2:15 – take 2Pe 2:14 – eyes 1Jo 2:16 – the lust of the flesh
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
6:25 Lust not after her beauty in thy heart; neither let her take thee with her {m} eyelids.
(m) With her wanton looks and gesture.